Whew!! What we have gone through to get some pictures to our
website from the Baja Ha-Ha is way too depressing to share –
but they made it! (Well, some of them anyway!) Stay tuned for
more, and please be patient as we work through the bugs and offer
as many daily updates to our website as possible.
Looking for current as well as recent wind and sea readings
from 17 buoys and stations between Pt. Arena and the Mexican border?
Here’s the place – which has further links to weather buoys and
stations all over the U.S.: www.ndbc.noaa.gov/stuff/southwest/swstmap.shtml.
Also check out http://facs.scripps.edu/surf/buoylist.html
(but note that the Java Applet is still not working with some
browsers on Macs – including your Webmistress’s Netscape Communicator!)
Pacific Ocean Weather
You can view the University of Hawaii Department of Meteorology
satellite picture by clicking
here.
While the Baja Ha-Ha is underway, our cruising section will
be on hiatus, but we’d still love to hear from you…so keep your
pictures and stories coming!
Baja Ha-Ha Coverage
November 1 – 125 nautical miles southeast of San Diego
The seventh annual 750-mile Baja Ha-Ha Cruiser’s Rally from San
Diego to Cabo San Lucas started yesterday off Point Loma under
sunny skies with five to seven knots of wind. The 112 starters
ranged in length from 27 to 94 feet, with a total of 430 crew.
Eight of the starters were catamarans, two were motoryachts.
The wind built slightly in the afternoon, but never over 12 knots.
Spinnakers blossomed near the Coronado Islands as the wind came
aft, but a cross swell reduced their effectiveness. As often
happens off Mexico, the wind died almost completely during the
middle of the night. Some of the fleet began to motor but those
who hung in there were rewarded with a light but steady breeze
shortly after dawn.
At 0930 on Wednesday, ‘Profligate’ is moving at seven to nine
knots under a light chute. The sun is out, the skies are blue,
and Michelle, the Kiwi, has already taken a morning swim. Wish
you were here.
The Ha-Ha festivities started on Sunday with the big West Marine
Kick-Off and Costume Party BBQ at Cabrillo Isle Marina in San
Diego. The costumes were great and the spirit was even better.
– The Grand Poobah reporting from aboard ‘Profligate’.
Ha-Ha Note: We plan to bring you almost-daily coverage of the
rally, but are literally having ‘technical difficulty’. Check
our website for our progress in receiving the much anticipated
(by us too!) pictures of the Ha-Ha as it’s happening. (To get
your fix on the days we are unable to update our site, peruse
our archives.)
YOTREPS
November 1 – The Pacific Ocean and Cyberspace
Who is out making passages in the Pacific and what kind of
weather are they having? Check out YOTREPS – ‘yacht reports’ –
at http://www.bitwrangler.com/yotreps/
Racing
Great Pumpkin Regatta
October 28-29 – Richmond Yacht Club
Happiness is a warm gun – Cam “Not That One” Lewis,
one of Monterey Bay’s most talented sailors, took the gun in
Sunday’s Richmond YC-hosted Great Pumpkin Pursuit Race. Sailing
his J/22 ‘Tinseltown Rebellion’ with Karen Loutzenheiser and
Matt Seifenzahl, Cam topped the second boat – Gary Albright’s
J/22 ‘Talisman Banana’ by a comfortable 21 seconds. Rounding
out the top ten: ‘Twilight Zone’ (Merit 25), ‘Toucan’ (J/22),
‘Gruntled’ (Moore 24), ‘Redhawk’ (Hawkfarm), ‘Gone Too Farr’
(Farr 40), ‘Bullseye’ (N/M 50), ‘Blue Chip’ (Farr 40), and ‘Flyer’
(Farr 40). Sunday’s race around Alcatraz and Angel islands
was delightful, almost making up for the thoroughly wet and miserable
weather experienced during Saturday’s three one design races.
Results of the buoy racing portion of The Pumpkin will be posted
“in about a week” at www.ryc.org. Saturday’s other
Halloween event – Tiburon YC’s PHRF-oriented Red Rock Regatta
– was canceled due to the rain and high winds.
Pumpkin sampler, clockwise from top left:
‘Tinseltown Rebellion’ crossing the finish line; “We won!”;
The soft parade; ‘Talisman Banana’ was the bridesmaid; Clown
alley; Farr 40s ‘Flyer’ and ‘Blue Chip’.
All photos Latitude/Rob
Grand Prix Bytes
The illbruck Challenge and Duesseldorf YC just announced the
first-ever German America’s Cup campaign, to be led by 36-year-old
Marin County superstar John Kostecki. Though Herr Kostecki and
the illbruck Challenge are the odds-on favorite to win the next
Volvo Round the World Race, their foray into the 2003 America’s
Cup is apparently more of a one-boat, long-term approach to winning
the Cup sometime further down the road. Another Bay Area sailor,
Matt Ciesicki, has joined illbruck Challenge in a management
role. . . The start of the fourth Vendée Globe is scheduled
for November 5 in Les Sables d’Olonne, France, with 24 boats
expected to take a shot at the 106-day record. No Americans will
race – in fact, only one American, the late Mike Plant,
has ever competed in this grueling non-stop circumnavigation.
However, Bay Area ‘soloist’ Bruce Schwab is on scene at the ‘Vendée
Village’ and will be sending us pictures and reports from the
start. See www.vendeeglobe.com for more details about the upcoming
race (hit the British flag for the English version).
Bruce and 24-year-old British media
darling
Ellen MacArthur (‘Kingfisher’).
Zut alors!
One of the many vendor booths in the
‘Vendee Village’ was selling chocolate Open 60s, complete with
bulb keels!
